Uses of Lidocaine

Michelle Butler Instructor: Julia Paulett A&P1 Hello, my name is La Saundra and I am a Registered Nurse. I am here to speak with you ladies about things to expect as a nurse. I hear that some of you would like to be a nurse practitioner or nurse anesthetists. Both are great ideas and wonderful career choices. Today we will discuss a few topics; pain, nerve response, drug of choice to aid the pain and what action and reaction to expect. We will talk about Lidocaine it’s a topical gel. Topical means you apply it on the skin or the epidermis. Epidermis is the medical term for skin and dermis the layer that underlying the epidermis. These are the first and second layers of skin. Your reaction to pain is located in these layers of skin cause are nerve receptors are located in the epidermis and dermis of the skin. It’s like when we get cold we get goose bumps our nerve sensors tell the brain we are cold which causes a reaction to occur. How many have had a migraine, back pain, or even muscle spasm. A muscle spasm is a nerve action, which cause the nerve to jump. Your eyelid for instant may feel like it’s jumping without you causing it to move. However, we can use the topical gel Lidocaine to aid in reducing pain. When making a decision about the choice of medicine you administer, you want to be sure the patient isn’t allergic to any medication especially the medication of your choice. Sometimes a patient may not know they are allergic to medicine, they’ll begin to show signs of irritation redness, swelling, rash, hives and even tightness of the chest. When we use Lidocaine we are looking to stop pain from being recognized through our nerve sensors. Lidocaine penetrates the epidermis an dermis